It's interesting how often we read posts on here from people who believe that if they have their male dog castrated, it will help stop it pulling on its lead, stop it from being aggressive, improve its recall, stop humping, stop inappropriate marking etc.

Let me tell you about Arnie. I had Arnie neutered as early as 4 ½ months of age. (Which I will not do again.) I so much wanted to keep him, he is a crossbreed and was born in an accidental litter, but I knew that there was a risk that his father would not accept another male dog in the house. So I figured that if Arnie was neutered before sexual maturity, he would never fully become male in the eyes of other dogs.

For the first 3 years, Arnie did indeed behave like a puppy, and the other dogs treated him as such. But aged 3, he suddenly worked out how to cock his leg. He then realised it is perfectly possible to urine mark indoors if you are unhappy about something (such as when our next door neighbours acquired a new dog that barked a lot, close to our fence), and he will mark just as much during a walk as an entire male will do. He has been in fights with other male dogs as he sees himself as fully intact, and other males view him the same. He is male, full stop -testicles or no testicles.

This morning we looked out the kitchen window and saw Arnie tied with my in-season bitch.  Yes, he is also interested in bitches in season and will mate -despite having been neutered long before sexual maturity.

The one and only thing you can be sure of when neutering a male dog is that he will (after several weeks, not immediately!) become infertile, and so cannot sire puppies. Nothing else is definite.

At the age of 5 Ebony suddenly started cocking his leg once he had been neutered - he had never cocked it before but had always done big one off wee's like a girl!!! Now his constantly marking things!

Naughty Arnie :D

Yes, you're right the only thing you can be sure of is that neutering the dog makes it (eventually) sterile - and that it won't get testicular cancer.

However it can be beneficial in many situations. Neutering my two dogs has certainly calmed them down, they were having tremendous fights and now live in perfect harmony (like the song). Their breeder wanted them put to sleep, and I've no doubt that had neutering not worked for their particular problems they couldn't carry on.

Although they are still interested in bitches in season, it's not to the same degree. Before they wouldn't eat, would howl and were completely distracted for the whole 3 weeks. Now all they do is have a bit of a sniff.

So, there are no guarantees, but neutering can work wonders :)

Couldn't agree more. I have two entire males and one neutered rescue male. And there is absolutely no difference in behaviour between any of them. Marley (Mr no balls) marks just as much if not more then the others, is completely sex mad be it a stuffed toy, the youngest boy, or an unsuspecting visitor to the house's leg And they are still yet to sort out who's the real 'boss' :rolleyes:
In fact Marley is more 'man' then Geordi, but then he is a bit of a girl :D :D :D  

Know one dog in my breed who seems as bad if not worse after being done with regards to aggresive behaviour against other males.

Yep, I agree completely - my friend's had her neutered dog tie with a bitch, so I know it's possible! My own dog is unneutered, has been used at stud a few times, and has never weed inside since he was first housetrained as a puppy, even with my bitch in full season. :-)

Oh yes, don't get me wrong chaumsong -and indeed I am having one of my boys neutered on Friday! -I just wanted to point out that it isn't the "cure all" some (often new) posters seem to think. :)

I cant really say one way or the other,as my boys are neutered and are fine.I can however spot an intact male a mile away at the park,i never have to check if he's got the dangley bits or not,as it's so obvious.They are either always on lead due to aggresivness with other males,or they ram their noses so far up my females but that they usually get a snap on the nose,all the while ignoring my dogs signals whilst trying to hump them.I have also seen miraculous positive changes in problem dogs that have been done.

I agree it's not a cure all and wont solve whats purely a behavioural problem,but from my experience most times it does seem to help hormonal male driven problems.

Although i'm not sure a dog who was neutered at 4 mths old would quite know what he is or what he is supposed to be doing?? I've never met one that has been done that early.

Although i'm not sure a dog who was neutered at 4 mths old would quite know what he is or what he is supposed to be doing?? I've never met one that has been done that early.

That was my entire point Ktee -he SHOULDN'T know he is male and what to do, yet here he was yesterday mating and tying! Proving that not even neutering early makes a difference to all dogs.

And it has to be said my entire male dogs have never behaved like you describe -that sounds like nothing but badly trained dogs to me that you've come across.

Well my entire male is the one that usually gets humped when out by neutered males or sometimes females

And he is NOT aggressive, he has not got one aggressive bone in his body, again, he is usually the one that a passing dog will growl at

So I think it's training and the individual personality which makes a dog behave aggressively or not!

Fully agree Maria.

Have to agree with you mariac, Kez is still entire, not ever had a problem with him in any sense NO Aggression & never showed any sexual signs and like your he normally gets humped in the park by females in paticular my brother in laws 10 month puppy bitch and everyone thought it would be the other way around !!!

And it has to be said my entire male dogs have never behaved like you describe -that sounds like nothing but badly trained dogs to me that you've come across.

As I won bitches only and frequent the local City parks with a lot of dogs, I have only rarely encountered bad mannered males.  The odd young adolescent gets a lip curl or a snap if it goes too far, and next time they meet the girls they are polite.

Didn't you say you grew up in America, Ktee?  Are dogs there not as commonly neutered at a very young age as we have been led to believe?

Funny you should say this, Isabel. I co-moderate a breed mailing list, that is predominately american. Somebody asked if neutering at 10 weeks was normal and acceptable, and I said in the UK absolutely not, but in the US it's common. I've now just this moment had US breeders tell me it is NOT the norm at all and most breeders would advice waiting until after sexual maturity (after 12 months) and most vets say 6 months.

I found this report which states that pre-pubertal neutering of dogs makes them more prone to infectious diseases! That's not a claim I've ever come across before.

In this similar report it's recommended that spaying of bitches should be delayed until after 3 months of age!!

Gordon Bennett!!!!

It's no good asking me.  I have spent my life trying to avoid ever visiting the US :D  I was absolutely livid when my flight to South America was diverted to change at Miama but I'm discounting that when I claim to have never visited

Flight to South America Isabel? think of the environment...

:D

:D :D :D  Surely not

Daisy

We are talking about a few years ago :)  Even so I would not discourage people from travelling, particularly young people, it broadens the mind. Give me them all one trip like that rather than an annual trip to a beach in Europe I say :) 

Just had a posting about an 11 week old pup in a rescue shelter in the USA and he was already neutered!

  That's just awful! :(

I've only ever had one dog castrated, we did it because he was forever getting out in search of bitches :(  6 ft walls around the back garden and even from the house - when we managed to keep 2 cats from escaping   He was black and invariably went missing in the night.  As we live  near a busy road I lived in fear he'd cause an accident so in the end he was 'done' at @ 4 years old.  It did stop him from trying to escape, but from then on he developed allergies to almost everything :(  he was the itchiest, sneeziest, dog I have ever met.  After 18 months on steroids (Oh dog, the expense of that! )  I questioned whether antihistamines would be a better alternative, so he lived on Piriton. 

Although it couldn't be proved, I'm sure he wouldn't have developed such bad allergies if he hadn't been neutered.